Theodore Zaveri
'Theodore Zaveri '''is a former Systems Alliance combat engineer and officer who had been temporarily enslaved by the Batarian Hegemony. As of 2183, he was under the employ of the Holun-Myeri Exploratory Fund. Biography Childhood Theodore Connor Zaveri was born on Kaua'i, one of the Hawaiian islands, to his father, who was a soldier for the UNAS; and his mother, who worked for the UNAS Geological Service. Being busy with their work, Zaveri spent most of his childhood living with his grandparents. His grandfather, Alan Zaveri, was a retired car mechanic. In his spare time, he taught Zaveri the basics in engineering and vehicle repair. Zaveri grew to enjoy mechanics. He enjoyed organizing parts to create a unitary function, and he found fixing machinery similar to puzzle-solving. He later became interested in military-grade vehicles, mainly because of the complexity in their design as well as the speed, durability, and power they’re able to demonstrate. Pride and Patriotism In his teenage years, Zaveri realized how distant he felt from his original parents. Though he was able to connect with them on holidays and when they’re released from duty, he felt that they were both mysterious and fascinating. Both served the UNAS, but neither one of them talked much about their duties or their experiences while serving. They were also the kind of people who would do more and talk less. When they did take the time to speak with each other or with their son, it was blunt and short. Above all else, they were patriotic, and both were proud to call themselves servants of humanity. Zaveri later joined the Alliance Navy at the age of twenty-one, trying to follow in his parents’ footsteps. He figured joining would not only give him the chance to work with some of the most advanced vehicles humanity has designed, but also grow to understand how his parents became who they were. Zaveri was trained to repair ground machinery, vehicles, and weapons, and was eventually assigned to an Alliance cruiser to assist in repairing M35 Makos. The crewmates found Zaveri to be monotone in nature - he spoke plainly and acted like a forty-year-old for someone in his early twenties. Still, most found him to be father-like, and ironically enough, he served as the emotional support for some of the ground soldiers. He got along well with his superiors, although some felt that he was taking over their role as a leader in the eyes of the other crewmates, whether intentional or not. First Contact In 2157, humanity made first contact with other sentient species, and eventually established connections with the Citadel. While some of his fellow soldiers and engineers found the events unnerving, especially since their integration with the aliens began with the First Contact War, Zaveri was excited. Humanity could expand their understanding of the universe more than ever before, and evolve as a species socially, philosophically, and especially technologically. Zaveri was also ecstatic to learn about alien machinery. Though he mostly kept his opinion to himself, he found the most interesting race to be the turians. In general, they seemed patriotic themselves. Honor and efficiency seemed to play a huge role in their behavior, government, and military tactics. For him, it was a shame that they and humanity were barely on good terms with one another. Unwelcome Home Zaveri had to make a hard choice when alien relations began to expand. Though he wanted to have a chance to see the galaxy, and maybe even get the chance to learn new technology, he was getting homesick. Not only that, but he wanted to experiment with other roles in the Alliance Military. For a couple of years, he served as a drill sergeant back on Earth. But while doing a fair job in his new position, he realized how much he hated it. He didn’t like teaching and working with inexperienced soldiers; soldiers who were much younger than he was in both literal and mental terms. At the same time, he wasn’t used to yelling at the top of his lungs or throwing childish insults at them, even if it was to push them to work hard. He longed to go back to engineering work. Enslavement Zaveri’s positive outlook on human/alien interactions were challenged when he was thirty-six, in 2164. At that time he had earned the rank of 2nd Lieutenant and served aboard the ''SSV Tel Aviv as a combat engineer. While traveling through the Attican Traverse, his ship was attacked by a large batarian pirate vessel in the middle of an asteroid belt. Their ship was ransacked and the crew was captured to be sold as slaves. Among the things that the pirates stole was one of the Tel Aviv’s Makos, which the pirates figured would be useful to them for ground operations. The problem was that none of them were too familiar with the vehicle's components or how to maintain them. The pirates settled on forcing Zaveri to serve as their technician and to teach the crew how to use take care of the vehicle themselves. This gave Zaveri more access to the ship, but he was kept under mass surveillance. No amount of service Zaveri provided swayed the batarians’ treatment of him or his crew. They were treated like animals, abused, tortured. Childish insults weren’t beneath the aliens. They constantly commented on Zaveri’s height. It at first didn’t bother him too much but combined with the other ways the batarians were treating his crew, it became a harsh reminder of those dark days. Escape and Resignation The crew was stuck with the pirates for two weeks, up until the batarians took a short pit stop on Omega. Though the pirate ship was bigger than most, the number of crew members was surprisingly small. The captain and a few members of his team left the deck to get drinks, which gave Zaveri a short leeway to escape. Hacking into the pirates’ treasury, Zaveri left the ship to find help. Unfortunately, he was unable to find the time to free his crew, as a few pirates were right on his trail. Realizing that this port wasn’t the kind of place that had law-abiding police, Zaveri was able to pay a small mercenary group to provide protection and transport him back to the Citadel. Zaveri felt tremendous guilt for not saving his crew, but he knew he would have a chance to rescue them once he could get back in contact with the Alliance. But once he was able to, Alliance informed him that they wouldn’t risk sending fleets into the Terminus Systems just to collect a few soldiers. Furious with the Alliance’s answer, Zaveri ended his service, feeling betrayed by the global force that he once looked up to. But while he was angry with the Alliance, he also suffered from survivor’s guilt over the loss of his team. Zaveri became more irritable, had trouble sleeping, and was having random flashbacks to his time on the batarian ship. Temporary Elysium Needing a place to escape, Zaveri decided to move away from earth and into a new human colony. He settled on Elysium in order to start a new life. While there, he met a turian medical doctor named Valia Deren, who worked in a hospital within his district. She was a very confident and borderline cocky individual. She let the people at her workplace know that she knew her stuff and earned a place in the colony despite being an alien associated with the ones that attacked the human colony Shanxi back in the First Contact War. When she moved to Elysium she was originally motivated to not only learn about human culture but to give a good name to her race among the species. But as time went by, her goal shifted to proving that no amount of racial tensions will sway her from continuing to work as an accomplished doctor. But constantly keeping her guard up put a damper on her emotionally, and the stress was building up on her. Zaveri was someone she could lean on to, someone who could appreciate her for her efforts and listen to her problems. In turn, Zaveri was not only fascinated in talking to a turian, but looked up to her strong character and persistence. She encouraged Zaveri to get back to doing what he loved best, engineering. However, Zaveri wanted to expand his skills beyond working on ground vehicles. Serving on Alliance ships made him realise the excitement, challenge and importance of learning how to build and repair spaceships. Zaveri moved in with Deren and majored in aerospace engineering with the John T. Franchester University of Space Exploration and Colonization. It was an uphill struggle, because of the complexity of the education and the number of jobs he had to take on the side to pay for his tuition as well for rent. But after eight years, he obtained his Ph.D. Skyllian Blitz Four years later, tragedy struck the colony. Zaveri was present on Elysium during the Skyllian Blitz. Hoping to drive out the batarian threat with everything they got, Zaveri connected with Alliance troops and assisted them as a combat engineer. He helped defend his district from attacks, but by the time the dust cleared and civilians were evacuated, he was informed that the ship his girlfriend was on was shot down and destroyed by batarian pirates. Zaveri returned to Earth stricken with grief over the loss of his lover. The painful experience intensified his survivor's guilt. He knew he needed to get back to work somewhere, not just to distract himself from his emotional turmoil, but also to keep a promise to Deren that he would continue to pursue what he loves. Another New Start He thought his dream job came in August 2177, when Nashan Stellar Dynamics hired him as a lead engineer in one of their manufacturing sites on Noveria. He built and designed cargo ships that were designed to counter pirate attacks. Though he liked his job and the people he worked with, he hated Noveria. He wasn’t used to the cold climate on the planet, and the businessmen and bureaucrats that populated the area, in his opinion, were greedy individuals who only made “friends” with people if there was something to gain from it. Zaveri wanted to work for a cause bigger than himself or for a few wealthy entrepreneurs. He wanted to participate in a cause that benefited humanity as a whole, but not by joining the Alliance. In 2183, that opportunity came knocking when Ted was contacted by the Holun-Myeri Exploratory Fund. Personality Serving several years as an Alliance engineer caused Zaveri to develop some of his personality traits, from his blunt mannerisms, to his cockiness in his abilities, and even his difficulty in trusting others outside of his own team. He doesn’t like to take bullshit from people, from faking emotions to deliberately deceiving others. He considers someone a loyal person, or at least a rational adult, if they don’t feel the need to create an image for themselves. Another pet peeve of his is when anyone comments or jokes about his size, as it not only makes him believe those around him see him as incapable of doing his part on the team, but those comments also serve as a painful reminder of when he and his original crew were taken by batarian pirates. But it isn’t just pirates. Zaveri has a hard time trusting any batarian. While he isn’t the kind of guy to give any random alien an unfriendly welcome, he is very slow to trust any with four eyes. He’ll act slightly nervous in front of any batarian and keep his distance. Turians, on the other hand, are a race he finds fascinating, and at times he looks up to their cultural norms. They’re the kind of race that work to not only get the job done, but to do it the right way. Honor and loyalty seem to play a huge role with them usually, no matter what group they’re a part of. Though he’s aware of the First Contact War, he sees them different from batarians because turians and humans have taken steps to establish better relations. Despite his feelings, there’s one thing that Zaveri values above anything else: his team. Once he’s used to the people he’s working with, he goes out of his way to put his feelings aside to make sure his group not only survives, but succeeds. That’s not to say that he won’t be honest about how he feels about someone or something that happens, but he knows who his bosses are and will follow orders, even if he thinks they’re stupid orders. Physical Description Zaveri is a middle-aged, squat pacific islander. His size, combined with his stocky body type, makes his physique similar to that of a volus. He even walks in a similar fashion, waddling about and struggling to do things like run or jump. But what he lacks in physical skills, he makes up for in his achievements as an engineer. Ted has a light-brown skin tone with a few blemishes on his face, neck and collarbone. But otherwise he carries few scars or other markings from his military career. He has short, jet black hair, with some grey hairs on the sides of his head. He also has bushy black eyebrows and almond-brown eyes. The way his eyebrows hang over his eyes, Zaveri always looks as if he’s grumpy or serious. But usually this is just a result of his looks. When aboard a ship or in a base, just working on fixing and designing vehicles, Zaveri will wear his regular Alliance engineer garb. When he has to go on a mission, he’ll wear standard Alliance armor. Armament When in combat, Zaveri utilizes a Raikou heavy pistol. His omni-tool is equipped with the combat abilities AI Hacking, Incinerate, Overload and Combat Drone.Category:Humans Category:Characters Category:Systems Alliance Category:Engineers Category:Holun-Myeri Exploratory Fund Category:Explorers Category:Skyllian Blitz Category:Nashan Stellar Dynamics